Neal spoke at a press conference in Court Square in downtown Springfield Thursday. Watch video
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal made the case for prioritizing disaster relief spending at a press conference in downtown Springfield Thursday, appearing alongside Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Domenic Sarno to outline the federal response to tornado devastation in Massachusetts.
"Nobody said when this tornado hit, "Too much government,'" Neal said. "The response from the government at the federal level with FEMA, (Federal Coordinating Officer) Nick Russo and his team, across the board, and MEMA, and the requests that I took over the next 72 hours were always along the line of, 'What more is the government going to be able to do?' And the government responded."
With FEMA under strain from what Neal called a "violent spring" across the nation, federal disaster relief funding has not escaped spending debates, as Congressional Democrats and Republicans struggle over the nation's debt.
House majority leader Eric Cantor said earlier this year that an emergency spending bill for disaster relief should not pass through Congress unless offsets are found elsewhere in the budget by way of spending cuts.
At a recent Republican presidential candidates debate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said that the nation "cannot afford" to continue spending at the federal level.
Pressed by CNN's John King to answer whether that included federal disaster relief, Romney said, "It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off. It makes no sense at all."
At the Thursday press conference, Neal commended FEMA's response to numerous disasters across the country this spring.
"FEMA has been stretched in terms of response," he said. "And yet, they were right here, and in two week's time, we had a declaration from the White House."
More details on Massachusetts' federal disaster designation coming from The Republican. Follow updates on relief resources here »